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Recently I was talking with a relatively new Regional Manager. He had taken over his role within the past four months and was facing some tough challenges with the office manager he had inherited. She had become loyal to his predecessor, but had also become accustomed to some bad habits which didn’t particularly help him (the new Regional Manager) or her colleagues.

He had already tried his best to win her over and to accommodate her in a number of ways, although he was finding that she wasn’t stepping-up in a positive way. He was left with the dilemma of making an appropriate decision that would be minimally disruptive on the remainder of his team.

We therefore turned to Option Solving as the means to make the wisest choice. In this connection, our first step was to come up with an appropriate question, based upon key considerations which included: potential disruption to the team, benefits of getting her on board, her past disappointments of promises not fulfilled, and repercussions if she didn’t step up. (Full question in latest example.)

From there his “bookends” or most extreme options popped out: Continue with her as is and, at the other end, Let her go. Now he was in a position to look at his most interesting options, of which he came up with six. We then put the picture aside (see a selection of these in the latest example: we have not listed them all to avoid readers second guessing his choices, when they are not in a position to feel his exact circumstances) for some emotional distancing. We talked about a range of other things for ten minutes or so.

At that point, I invited him to quickly review the picture once more and identify his most intuitive option. He picked his favored option fairly quickly and then we talked about his particular approach to his solution. He was set to proceed, with his dilemma resolved.

Please refer to the Latest Example to access the overall picture. If you have an example of your own, please share it with this blogger, through the COMMENTS area.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: “Using Option Solving to decide on ‘Getting someone to reconsider their position?’” You’re your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the blogger.)